1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to tire repair. More particularly, the invention relates to a tire repair insert or plug as they are sometimes referred to in the tire repair industry, and to a method of repairing punctured tires. Specifically, the invention relates to a tire repair insert and method of repairing punctures in tires where the puncture assumes a variety of sizes and types which include, but are not limited to holes, cuts, star or X-breaks, and the tire repair insert is adaptable to the size of the puncture.
2. Background Information
As individuals and companies continue to search for new areas to reduce their expenses, tire repair has grown in popularity. If a pneumatic tire is punctured, it is significantly less expensive to repair the tire than to replace it. While repairing a punctured tire is less expensive than purchasing a new tire, the risk of air leakage around a tire repair insert is ever present. This risk is especially apparent for punctures that are smaller or larger than the tire repair insert. Repairing tires is also becoming more acceptable as society becomes increasingly concerned with the landfill dilemmas associated with discarded tires.
Tire repair inserts have been soft highly flexible bodies of an elastomeric material. In the common method of repair, an adhesive is applied to a thin smooth strip of soft, highly flexible, elastomeric material. The strip is then folded in half and forcibly elongated and inserted into a puncture. During the insertion of the strip into the puncture, the soft flexible material is substantially deformed to conform to the puncture. One problem associated with such prior art tire repair inserts is that the sealing effectiveness and repair reliability vary with differences in puncture size and shape. Also, when used with steel belted tires the steel cords will grasp, and tear the soft material preventing it from sufficiently entering the puncture and sealing the same.
Additionally, the use of many prior art repair products included the step of reaming the puncture hole to enlarge the hole to accept the tire repair insert. While reaming the hole often eliminates the problem associated with holes having varying size and shape, reaming necessarily requires the enlargement of the hole, further weakening the tire, and requiring the use of a larger, stronger tire repair insert.
Three well known tire repair inserts presently in use today, are shown in FIGS. 9-11 of the accompanying drawings. In use, all three inserts are inserted through the eye of an end slot needle, such that the ends of the insert are equal distance from the end slot needle. The needle is then forcibly inserted into the puncture and removed, leaving a portion of the insert within the puncture to seal the tire.
As should be apparent from a review of FIGS. 9-11, when the prior art tire repair inserts are inserted, the cross section of the portion extending into the puncture remains constant. While the above discussed tire repair inserts are presumably sufficient for the purpose which they are intended, the constant cross-sectional area of the insert has one drawback. If the puncture is somewhat smaller than the cross sectional area of the tire repair insert, the insert may be extremely difficult to force into the puncture and many times causes the insert to be cut upon insertion into the puncture. Alternatively, if the puncture is somewhat larger than the tire repair insert, then the puncture may not be adequately sealed.
While a variety of tire repair insert sizes may be manufactured and stocked to assure that the appropriate insert size is available for punctures of all sizes, stocking multiple size inserts increases the cost of tire repair, tire repair insert manufacture, and may cause confusion on the part of the repair technician.
Therefore, the need exists for an improved tire repair insert and method of repairing tires in which a single tire repair insert provides a range of cross-sectional areas such that a small cross-sectional area may be utilized to repair small punctures, a medium cross-sectional area of the same tire repair insert may be used to repair medium punctures, and a large cross-sectional area of the same insert may be used to repair large punctures in tires. This design also circumvents the frequent cutting of the insert by steel belt cords during insertion.